Supreme Court to Hear Lethal Injection Case

Hours after staying the execution of an inmate already strapped to a gurney at a Florida prison, the Supreme Court said Wednesday it would hear his arguments that the drug cocktail in lethal injections could cause excruciating pain.

Lethal injections are used in most states with capital punishment, and dispute has been growing over the way the executions are carried out.

The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether a specific form of execution is cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida inmate Clarence Edward Hill, who filed the appeal, had been strapped to a gurney with intravenous lines in his arms Tuesday night when he won the stay, signed by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

The full court announced Wednesday that the stay would remain in place until the justices decided whether an appeals court was wrong to prevent Hill from challenging the lethal injection execution method.

The argument before the high court is expected April 26, with a ruling before July.

“What a fantastic day. What a fantastic day,” said Hill’s attorney D. Todd Doss, who relayed the news to his client. “He was happy we get to go and present this to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Hill is on death row for killing a Pensacola, Fla., police officer after a bank robbery in 1982.

Hill has converted to Islam and taken the name Razzaq Muhammad, although he does not use that name in court filings.

A Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Hill would be moved off death watch in a cell block adjacent to the execution chamber and back to death row until the injection issue was resolved by the courts.